A: I hope this edition of the Letter Box finds you well. We devote the first part of the Letter Box to acknowledging letters from Indian Dx’ers. In recent years, our Indian listeners have preferred to email rather than send post mail. Many of them email comments while they are still listening to our program. Here’s an email from Miss Karobi Hazarika. We rarely receive correspondence from female Dx’ers, although we know a lot of women listen to shortwave radio. I guess work and social responsibilities take most of your time.
B: Just like us! I think women prefer chatting to writing letters, which take longer to receive a reply.
A: Good point. Miss Hazarika, nicknamed Rosa Baby, received VOV’s signal on the frequency of 7280 khz on September 12. She rated SINPO at 43343 and said the Letter Box was enjoyable with all the reception reports and comments of listeners from many countries such as Japan, India, and the US. “The Letter Box started with a letter from Mr. Horakuma of Japan. At the end of the program was a very nice song which was really mind blowing. I found the program today very helpful, informative, and accurate. Presentation was fantastic.”
B: Thank you Rosa Baby for sending us your feedback on the program. We’ll send you our QSL card and some station promotional materials such as stickers or a map of Vietnam. Next up is an email from one of our regular listeners in India, RATAN KUMAR PAUL, a teacher and coordinator of the South Asia CRI DXer Forum. He emailed us reports for the programs between September 14 and 20, at 16:00 to 16:30 UTC, on the frequency of 9550 khz. The signal quality on those days was quite stable with overall ratings of 3 to 4. Ratan said he and his Dx’ing club members particularly enjoyed the September 19 Letter Box and the song played on the show. He asked “Why you don't acknowledge some letters and email senders’ names on your Letter Box? Hope you think about it.”
A: Well, we are sorry if we don’t understand your question clearly. We receive approximately 20 letters a week. Many of them are just reception reports including the date, time, frequency and some highlighted content of the program. In the Letter Box, we acknowledge reception reports with each sender’s name and nationality but give priority to answering listeners’ questions. We want to mention every letter we receive, but we can’t due to time constraints. But we assure you we verify each report and send out QSL cards if appropriate. Once in a while, our letters get unexpectedly delayed or get lost on their way. We will resend a letter if you let us know that it didn’t arrive.
B: Ratan, we hope we’ve answered your question. Next up is a letter from Prithwiraj Purkayastha of Assam, India. He says that as a regular listener to VOV he enjoys all the stories and loves them very much. He included 2 reports for September 10 and 12 programs on the frequency of 9730 khz from 16:00 to 16:30 UTC. SINPO rating was at 54444 for the excellent signal strength despite a little noise, occasional fading, and slight interference.
A: Prithwiraj has a Sangean ATS-9098 receiver with a Kestral W31MS Active Loop Antenna. We listened to your attached recording of the transmission and get a better idea about the reception of our station in Assam. Given the clear signal quality, he was able to jot down all major contents of the news segment, the weekly review of major events around the world, the Current Affairs piece about the Vietnamese President's visit to Kazakhstan, and a review of Vietnam-Kazakh relations. He said he also enjoyed the very interesting Land and People segments.
B: Prithwiraj was fascinated by the September 2 Letter Box, which he said included some very informative talks on Vietnamese tourism, a reading of listeners’ letters, and some beautiful Vietnamese songs. Your reports are accurate and useful and we definitely will verify them with QSL cards confirming the Date, Time, and Frequency.
A: Here I have a letter from Neelakandan Visvanathan of India, who listened to VOV’s broadcast in English on September 9 on the frequency of 6175 KHz. He rated SINPO at 45444 and called some minor technical remarks. Given the favorable listening conditions, he said he enjoyed the news bulletins and the song played in the end of the program.
A: From Finland, our regular listener Sami Niemeläinen reported tuning in to VOV’s frequency of 9625 khz on September 13. He listened to a program in Vietnamese for Overseas Vietnamese people and sent his report to VOV’s English section, including a link to an audio clip he posted on the Youtube website. We’ve forwarded your email so our Overseas Vietnamese section can process and verify it. But we appreciate your recording the program for us so we can check the quality of our broadcast in the eastern part of Finland, in a city called Joensuu.
A: We’ve listened to the audio clip, which is clear and strong. We think its a satisfactory signal for a shortwave broadcast. Sami also attached a photo of his hometown, a picturesque city beside a river. There are some tourist boats anchored at the river port. I’m impressed by the colors of the city: a blue river, white boats painted with blue stripes, colorful pennants, creamy houses with red roofs, and leaves changing colors.
B: It’s peaceful and lively with human activities. Thank you very much Sami for sharing your city with us. Here I have a nice postcard showing a small riverside area in Zurich, Switzerland. I guess this is where the sender Sandro Blatter lives. It’s really amazing to see floating houses and people traveling from place to place on river buses.
A: Sandro says he’s 57. He works for a telecommunications company. Listening to shortwave radio has been his favorite hobby for 40 years. His last letter to the English section was at the end of 2008. He observed VOV’s program on September 4 on the frequency of 9730 khz, with a SINPO rating of 55434. The signal was good and easy to receive, so he was able to note down the main contents of our 30-minute program. Your reception report was precise and sufficient for us to verify. You’ll get our QSL card and some station souvenirs soon.
B: Mr. Horsefield of the UK tuned in to our special edition to celebrate Vietnam’s National Day, on September 2. He wrote: “I was very pleased to hear the song to open your broadcast. The vocalist sounded superb. The feature was very informative, which gives listeners a very good sense of the topic and intention. The feature was interesting due to your clear presentation. I was sorry that your broadcasts are so short. It’s not possible to do a full hour transmission.”
A: Thank you very much for your interest in our program. Until we can extend the broadcast to one hour, we’ll try to bring you as much information as we can in our 30-minute program. You know doubling the air time involves a lot of considerations. Regarding our signal, Mr. Horsefield wrote: “your reception on September 2 at 17:00 UTC on my handheld radio, an ETON with a telescopic antenna, gave me crystal-clear audio. SINPO was all 5s, so please do not change this frequency of 9625 khz.”
B: I hope our other listeners in Europe find this frequency as clear as you do. Last but not least, we would like to acknowledge letters from Fumito Hokamura of Japan, Grant Skinner of England, Roberto Carlos Garlonso of the US, Richard Lemke of Canada, and Miguel Angel Lahera Rivero of Cuba. We’ll send you QSL cards to confirm your reception reports soon. Time is running out on this week’s Letter Box so we have to say goodbye. We welcome your suggestions at:
English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam
B: Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. And if you miss any of our programs, you can always catch up by logging onto our website at www.vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Good bye until next time.